Sharing tags among individual user media libraries

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for unifying tags of a media user community by transferring user-supplied tags between individual user media libraries. One aspect comprises a process for identifying, within a user community, common tags associated with media items and common media items associated with tags by cross-referencing media items and corresponding tags among individual media user libraries. The system in one embodiment provides a user with a unified classification of tags, which can be used to search, navigate and organize an individual user's media library.

1 . A method of sharing tags among a user community comprising: 
 receiving from a user a unique attribute of a media item;    comparing the unique attribute to a predetermined database of known media items to determine a matching media item; and    if a match is found, reading an ID of the matching media item from the database and sending the ID of the matching media item to the user.    
     
     
         2 . A method according to  claim 1  and further comprising, if a match is found, reading additional metadata associated with the matching media item from the database and sending the metadata to the user along with the ID of the matching item.  
     
     
         3 . A method according to  claim 1  and further comprising, if a match is not found in the database, assigning a new ID number to the media item, returning the assigned ID number to the user, and adding the ID number to the database in association with the received unique attribute of a media item.  
     
     
         4 . A method according to  claim 1  wherein the unique attribute comprises metadata.  
     
     
         5 . A method of sharing tags among a network user community comprising: 
 receiving media item tag data from a plurality of users, the tag data comprising, for each media item, identification of the contributing source, the media item ID, and a tag;    storing the received tag data to form a community tag data repository;    receiving a query from one of the users, the query comprising a media item ID, a media item type, and metadata associated with the identified media item;    searching the community tag data repository to extract media item tags having associated metadata that are similar to the metadata provided in the query; and    returning the extracted tags to the user in response to the received query.    
     
     
         6 . A method of sharing tags according to  claim 5  including returning the associated metadata for each of the tags extracted and returned to the user.  
     
     
         7 . A method of sharing tags according to  claim 5  wherein: 
 the query comprises a media item tag;    and the query media item tag is one of a predetermined set of universal tags.    
     
     
         8 . A method of sharing tags according to  claim 5  and further comprising determining a set of universal tags responsive to the tag data received from the users.  
     
     
         9 . A method of sharing tags according to  claim 8  and further comprising sending the determined set of universal tags to a user for the user to employ in tagging media items in a local library.  
     
     
         10 . A method of sharing tags according to  claim 5  including: 
 receiving indicia from a user that identifies a media item;    searching the data depository to locate data associated with the identified media item, the associated data including a universal tag; and    returning the universal tag to the user for the user to employ in association with the identified media item.    
     
     
         11 . A method of sharing tags according to  claim 5  and further comprising sharing the located data with another user of the network user community.  
     
     
         12 . A machine-readable medium storing executable code to implement the method of  claim 5.